


Jeff and Austin Get Distracted From Watching The Queen of Sauce

by Dumb_Scotticus



Category: NormalBoots
Genre: Canadian Shack, Feelings Realization, Fluff, M/M, Sharing Clothes, Sharing a Bed, Snowed In, Stardew Valley AU, literally just jeff and austin already being boyfriends and then affirming that theyre boyfriends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 09:24:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16720695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dumb_Scotticus/pseuds/Dumb_Scotticus
Summary: A canadian shack fic, except canada is stardew valley and the shack is jeff's farmhouse.





	Jeff and Austin Get Distracted From Watching The Queen of Sauce

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pikuza](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pikuza/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY PIKA!!!!
> 
> ENJOY SOME STARDEW VALLEY AU PBJEFF!!!

_ Oh, Austin slept here again last night,  _ was the first thing Jeff thought after he tried to pull more of the blanket over himself and was met with a sleepy grunt. He glanced over to the empty fireplace, rubbed sleep from his eyes, and stood up to relight it. He checked the time —7:34, they had once again overslept after last night’s trip to the mines—and reached for the lighter. He fumbled around with some logs and kindling in his half-awake state, but managed to get the fire going. It was a cold winter, and while the farm animals had heaters, Jeff and Austin were relying on fire, wool sweaters and blankets (having sheep came in handy for this), and the occasional warming effect of homemade wine from the cellar.

Before going back to bed, he peeked out the window, and saw nothing but white. This concerned him enough to wake up a little more, and he padded over to the other side of the room to check the rest of the windows. They too were blocked by snow, and the panic finally began to set in when he couldn’t open the front door more than a few inches. Even so, the ajar door let in a draft that chilled Jeff to the bone, so he quickly shut it. 

Turning back to face the bed, he debated on waking up Austin. Jeff was still tired, too, and cold on top of that. He grabbed another blanket and began to get back into bed when a mumble caught his attention.

“What time ‘s it?” Austin yawned.

Jeff looked at the clock before responding. “Well, it's 7:40…”

“Oh, okay,” Austin breathed. Jeff moved back into the bed.  _ Might as well sleep in _ , he figured,  _ Not like we’ll be able to do much today anyway. _

As he tugged the blanket back over himself, he felt movement next to him. Soon, a fluffy head of hair was in his face and a warm back was pressed to his chest. He chuckled fondly at Austin’s not quite lucid grab at warmth, and threw an arm around the other man. Body heat would be much better than anything else anyway.

* * *

Jeff woke up to his arm being moved.

“Oh, dang, we overslept again, huh?” Austin sat up, wrapping the blanket around himself as he stared at the clock. “It’s almost noon.”

“You were up earlier this morning, do you not remember?” Jeff yawned.

“Nope,” Austin said with a laugh. “Do you think we’ll have enough time to go foraging? I wanna do the thing where you bake all the roots together.”

“I mean, yeah, we probably would have enough time, but time’s not really the main issue right now,” Jeff said sheepishly. Austin furrowed his brows sleepily in response. “We’re sorta… Snowed in,” Jeff frowned. Austin’s eyes widened a bit, and he looked at the windows to see the same plain white that Jeff had seen earlier.

“Oh no, do you think the cows ‘n stuff are okay?” Austin fretted.

“...What? yeah, the animals are fine, dude, they have heaters. ...Why don’t we have a heater?” Mused Jeff.

“That’s a good question,” agreed Austin, “Why  _ don’t _ we have a heater? I’ve been freakin’ freezing my butt off for the past week and the chickens and goats are hangin’ out by the heater like its a water cooler at the office!”

“Well,” Jeff laughed, “maybe once we can open the door more than an inch we can go get one.

Austin yawned, shaking his head. “So what now?”

“Well, first of all I’m gonna put on a sweater,” Jeff paced to his dresser in the corner of the room. Austin snuggled deeper into the blankets. “I can make some coffee if you want,” Jeff offered, tugging on a wool sweater. Evelyn had made it for him in the Fall after visiting the farm to drop off a casserole, and seeing Austin shearing one of their sheep as Jeff wound the wool into the loom. Jeff sighed comfortably once it was over his head. It was incredibly warm.  _ Too bad Austin’s is in his cabin, _ he thought absentmindedly.

“Coffee?” Austin repeated, “I dunno, I sorta just wanna go back to bed to be honest, dude.”

“Aw, come on, we can watch TV and make some cookies or something! I’ll let you lick my spoon,” Jeff smiled.

“Aw, jeez, Jeff!” Austin flushed slightly at the accidental innuendo.

“Oh!” Jeff gasped with realization, then started to chuckle. “I didn’t mean to do that!” He laughed, covering his face with a hand. Austin stared softly at Jeff as he rubbed the side of his cheek, his nose crinkling in amusement as he laughed. After a brief moment, Jeff seemed to catch him staring, but said nothing aside from a quick, quizzically raised eyebrow and smirk. “I meant my _ actual  _ spoon, like the one Leah carved last year. She was my secret gift-giver, remember?”

Austin flopped over on the bed with a grunt in place of an actual reply, pulling the blankets over his head. “Gimme like, 15 more minutes,” he said, muffled under the pile of fabric and wool. Jeff rolled his eyes fondly, making his way to the kitchen.

Grabbing a jar of their coffee beans from earlier in the year, he poured them into the grinder and set to work on preparing them for brewing. He hummed to himself as he did so; Not any tune in particular, but based loosely off something from a game on the arcade machines at the saloon.

 

Not far away, in the bedroom, Austin listened to the quiet hums drifting into the room. He sighed happily. There was never any ambient noise from outside in weather like this. It was silent, apart from the occasional gust of wind over the windows. He enjoyed that the silence was only broken by from Jeff’s humming and his slippers against the tile as he padded around the kitchen. Austin strained to listen closer for a long while, bringing his head out from under the blanket. Soon the chilled air was too much for him, the fireplace was no help (Jeff wasn’t great at building a big fire in the small space, and it ended up petering out unless Austin adjusted the logs with a poker), and it was certainly no replacement for the warm, solid presence of Jeff lying next to him.

Austin groaned, standing up from the bed. His feet hit the cold hardwood floor, and he shivered. He shuffled over and picked up the socks he had worn yesterday, slipping them on despite the dirt from the mine smudged onto the hems. He slipped yesterday’s dirty jacket on as well, and was thankful he had a spare set of pajamas in Jeff’s house. Grabbing the blanket to use as a makeshift cloak as an afterthought, he made his way to where Jeff sat in the living room, listening to the slow bubbling of the coffee maker and nibbling at a slice of toast. 

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Jeff laughed as Austin pulled up a chair next to him, “How was your ‘like 15 more minutes’?” he teased.

“Cold,” whined Austin jokingly. He crossed one leg over the other as he sat. Jeff frowned. “What?”

“Dude, are those the same socks from yesterday? Oh, man, is that the same  _ jacket  _ from yesterday?”

“Um, yeah…” Austin trailed off, slightly embarrassed, “I don’t have any other clothes in here.”

Jeff stood up, putting his toast on the counter. “C’mere, you can borrow some of mine.”

“You sure?”

“What? Yeah, of course! why wouldn’t I be?” Jeff asked. Austin shrugged in response. “We shared a bed last night, dude, I don’t think borrowing a sweater is a huge deal,” said Jeff. Austin considered this. He hadn’t really thought of them sharing a bed as anything odd; He was usually too tired from the day’s work to think about it when he crashed down next to Jeff. 

Thinking about it as he followed Jeff back into his room, it should have felt kind of weird, shouldn’t it? Sharing a bed with another grown man, occasionally waking up with arms wrapped around him snugly in a grounding, calming presence. The only time it ever felt weird or awkward was when one of them had an… Unfortunate natural reaction to such close quarters. Even then, though, it was quickly forgotten.

 

“Do you want a sweater or a sweatshirt?” Jeff asked, turning his head toward Austin from where he stood at his dresser.

“Hmmmm,” Austin hummed, “A sweatshirt is good. I like having the pockets.”

“Alrighty, sweatshirt it is– Oh, do you want a warmer pair of pants, too? Those pajamas are sorta thin,” Jeff fussed.

“Oh, yeah, actually, that’d be nice,” Austin said. 

He took the clothing Jeff handed him, tossing the blanket back on the bed and shucking his pants off. Jeff turned back around instinctively after spotting Austin’s boxers from under the large shirt. His cheeks went a subtle shade of red, and he waited to turn back around until he heard austin make a small noise of satisfaction and the rustling of fabric. Turning back around, Jeff couldn’t help but notice the way the sweatshirt rode up on him, exposing just a little bit of Austin’s stomach, or how the pants that went down to Jeff’s ankles stopped a little below Austin’s calf. It was  _ adorable _ . 

“Do they fit okay?” Jeff asked. Austin nodded as he wrapped the blanket back around himself. 

“Thaaaaanks, Jeff!” Austin droned cheerily. 

“No problem,” Jeff flashed him a thumbs up as Austin started to make his way back to the kitchen. Jeff followed, being careful not to step on the blanket trailing behind him. 

“Coffee!” Cried Austin enthusiastically as they reached the kitchen.

“Coffee!” Jeff echoed, opening a cabinet. He struggled to reach for Austin’s favorite mug on the top shelf, but suddenly Austin was behind him, leaning over him to reach it himself, along with a second one for Jeff.

“Here ya go!” Austin chirped, just a little bit smug.

Jeff thanked him anyway, pouring the hot liquid into each of the mugs.

* * *

Soon, they were settled in front of the television, watching a  _ The Queen of Sauce  _ re-run.

Jeff shivered and made an involuntary noise.

Austin silently offered him the blanket.

“Oh, no, man, I can go grab another one, you don’t have to give up yours.”

“Huh?” Austin cocked his head. “No, here, we can just share it. I wasn’t about to give up my blanket,” he laughs.

“Oh,” Jeff says simply, accepting Austin’s offer. And suddenly he was a lot warmer. He was also blushing, and couldn’t particularly pinpoint why. He had just shared a bed with the man, so why was sharing a blanket making him nervous? Jeff had cuddled with him this morning, for god’s sake, even if it was completely platonic and just because they were close enough friends where it wasn’t weird and it really didn’t mean anything and it was just to stay warm and definitely not because he was in love with Austin and—  _ Oh.  _

“Huh,” Jeff said quietly to himself.

“Hm?” Austin intoned.

“Oh, nothing dude. I just uh, I just… Realized something. Is all,” he stammered. 

“What?” Austin asked curiously.

“Nothing, it’s not a big deal.”

“No, I wanna know!” 

“No, really, it’s– it’s nothing.”

“Doesn’t seem like nothing,” Austin challenged.

“Well tough, because it’s for me to know, and you to not know,” Jeff said, trying desperately distract him with humor. 

Evidently, it didn't work, because Austin made a challenging noise, flopped down, and suddenly Jeff was pinned to the ground under a squirming mess of blankets.  _ That’s one way to stay warm _ , he guessed, sighing as Austin shuffled around on top of him.

Grasping a corner of the blanket, Jeff flipped the two of them over, practically smothering Austin with the blanket, before a very messy head of brown hair poked out from under a fold. 

“Jeez, Jeff!” Austin laughed, hair covering his eyes. Jeff propped himself up with an arm, shifting his weight off of Austin. 

“Hey, you started it!” Leaning on the blanket on the hardwood floor made him slip further down, though, and Austin’s laughter became louder and closer. He stared up at Jeff for a moment, carefully tilting his head and bringing it up from where it laid against the floor. Jeff stilled as Austin continued to raise himself up slowly, watching as his eyelids eventually fluttered closed.

Jeff was surprised by how soft Austin’s lips were. They were a little dry from the cold Winter air, but a comforting presence against Jeff’s own nonetheless. After a moment, Austin pulled back just a fraction of an inch, and Jeff undid the distance without hesitation, kissing Austin again, more firmly than the first time.

Kissing Austin didn’t feel like anything new. It was, of course, something Jeff had never done before, but it felt familiar in a way that made him sigh dreamily through his nose as Austin brought a hand to his face. They both kept their mouths closed, pressing soft, chaste kisses to each other’s lips, Austin unhurriedly stroking Jeff’s cheek. 

He sat up fully, and Jeff shifted to accommodate the move. There was a pause in their actions, and a heavy sense of uncertainty weighed down between them.

Jeff pointedly ignored it and smiled cheerfully at Austin, who returned the grin. 

“I was kinda worried you’d freak out,” mumbled Austin.

“What?”

“I dunno, I… I thought you might hate me or something. It’s stupid, I know,” Austin shrugged, rubbing his neck awkwardly. Jeff chuckled at him. 

“Yeah… Yeah, that  _ is _ kinda stupid, dude.”

“What!? You’re not supposed to say that!” Austin sputtered in amused surprise. Jeff wrapped an arm around him in response, pulling him close and pressing their cheeks together. Austin laughed again happily, kissing Jeff’s cheek with an exaggerated ‘ _ mwah’ _ . Jeff felt his face flush as he laughed along.

“I don’t think I could hate you if I tried Austin,” he said sincerely before being pulled into a tight embrace.

* * *

For the rest of the day and long into the night, it was still very cold in the house. Neither noticed.


End file.
